Kodiak wins online tract

At $7,003 per acre Kodiak Oil and Gas (USA) Inc. was high bidder in the Aug. 16 online auction of Tract OG-12-01183, a parcel in southeastern Williams County by the North Dakota Department of Trust Lands Minerals Management Division via EnergyNet.

The bonus bid was $560,240 for 80 acres. Adding the bidder’s premium, a lease fee and state sales fee, the total amount Kodiak paid was $571,854.80.

According to EnergyNet, 1,079 companies viewed information about the offering online; 23 registered to bid; nine actually bid on the tract.

EnergyNet conducted two previous lease offerings for the State of North Dakota prior to entering into a five-year contract in June.

The agreement with the online auction service allows the Minerals Management Division to offer acreage between the quarterly lease sales set by North Dakota law, which division manager Drew Combs says is very important to the state’s customers — North Dakota oil and gas producers.

“In North Dakota we’re drilling 1,280-acre spacing units and every once in a while you have a tract that isn’t leased or has expired,” inside one of those units, he said in an Aug. 15 interview. “It is difficult to wait quarterly for an auction, so EnergyNet is a nice fit for us.”